The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has published annual accounts showing it has grown its turnover to £44.3 million – the highest ever figure in the league’s history.

The SPFL’s latest figures reveal turnover rose by £2.4 million or 6% from last year’s previous record high of £41.9 million.

The increase has been primarily driven by the league’s new Sky Sports TV deal, as well as revenue growth from the SPFL’s other domestic and overseas broadcasting agreements.

The figures also reveal fee payments to clubs increased by £2 million or 6% to £33.7 million – with total group distributions to clubs totalling £37.9 million, up from last year’s £35.8 million.

This was in addition to the net gate receipts of £2.1 million distributed to the four clubs participating in the Premier Sports Cup semi-finals and final at the National Stadium.

The SPFL has just reported significantly higher attendances per capita than any other European league in a new UEFA report.

SPFL group chief executive Neil Doncaster said: “We’re really proud to announce record turnover and fee payments to our member clubs today as we continue to build on the strong income growth and commercial deals in recent years.

“Given the challenging market and economic conditions right now, these encouraging results reinforce the huge popularity of Scottish football, as well as the level of interest this generates with our broadcasters and our increasing roster of partners.

“In recent months, we’ve agreed a major new title sponsorship deal with William Hill, as well as a new TV contract with Premier Sports.

“The SPFL has just reported significantly higher attendances per capita than any other European league in a new UEFA report, and whilst we’ll never be complacent, these results give us a strong foundation upon which to further improve our performance.”

SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan said: “These latest annual results are testament to the hard work and talent of the SPFL’s member clubs and to the efforts of the dedicated team at the SPFL, which works tirelessly on their behalf.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to provide our members with the highest annual distributions in the history of Scottish league football and thank our members for their vigorous support.”